A cluster of seven traditional stone Ligurian buildings located in the hills 20 km from Portofino.
Fava is a suburb of the town of Favale di Malvaro, which is located just over 12 km (7,5 miles) from the Ligurian coast as the crow flies, directly inland from the Portofino peninsula.
Fava itself was uninhabited for a number of years, but was bought by the Knight family between 2007 and 2011, from about 30 sellers.
This cluster of 7 buildings once provided 16 different private homes.
The nearest neighbouring houses are more than 100 metres away.
Location
The town of Favale is located at the confluence of two rivers that then become the River Malvaro.
Fava (altitude 360 m) is to the West of the main part of the Village, only just over a hundred metres from the main road in the town, but about 50 - 60 metres higher than it.
This gives it the most impressive views over two of the valleys, one to the mountains, which reach an altitude of 1180 m at Monte Pagliaro and Monte Rondanara (1041 m), and the other towards the coast.
The buildings are typical Ligurian homes, built of local stone and, and to find a complete cluster of them, with none of the buildings having been spoilt by bad 'renovation'' or 'alteration'' is a rarity.
As a result, the municipality has zoned it for this character to be maintained.
In all, the buildings provide a total area of about 2,000 sq.m. However, about half will need to be rebuilt, while the remaining half needs varying amounts of work to be done on it. (Refer to State of Properties document below)
As with all of Liguria, to deal with the steep slopes, dry walls have been built and have been in place for centuries in some cases.
These are natural stone walls built to retain the ground, without any mortar. It is merely the construction method and size of the rocks used that maintain these levels.
Currently the property has over 100 hazelnut trees, about a dozen olive trees, a number of Italian oak trees, about five chestnut trees, a few conifers, and a huge variety of other plants.
The roadway through the property was originally done in the natural stone riseu but this was badly damaged when the gas mains were put in and has not yet been repaired.
The property is served by the electricity grid, is connected to the main sewer system, and gets water from the water mains.
The main gas supply pipe runs up the roadway and passes in the midst of all the buildings.
The roadway is currently only for pedestrians, and so cars are parked in the nearest piazzale in the area known as Priagna.
